Dent Name
The name Dent is a localitiy name for people from the western Yorkshire Dales area where the town of Dent is located today.
According to the Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, there were three people listed with the name of Dent/Dente in 1379, Johannes de Dente, Thomas de Dent and Emma de Dent.
The town of Dent lies in the Western Pennines, the region of which Donaut map Papo (Dunod the Fat) was chieftain in the 6th century. He is recorded as attending the coronation of Arthur. The Welsh Annals record his death in 595AD.1
There are various genealogies which trace his ancestors back through Pabo the Pillar of Britain, ruler of the Borders and Northern Pennines, to King Coel and Caratacus, and thence to Beli and Anna (the sister of the Virgin Mary) and Bran the Blessed (mentioned in the Mabinogion)2. Whether or not today's Dents are directly descended from Donaut/Dunod cannot really be determined. There is some doubt as to how far AngloSaxon, Danish or Nordic incursions penetrated the Western Pennines and Cumbria (further information), so it is possible that the local people remained fairly homogenous in their Welsh/Briton heritage until at least 1066AD.
1. The link between Donaut map Papo and the town of Dent comes from Ashley, M. (2005). The Mammoth Book of King Arthur. New York, Carrol and Graf
2. ibid for these genealogies.